The interim National and county elections are held once every three years. All Ambazonian LGA chairs or representative who meets their financial contributions are eligible to vote. The Constitution places all elections and referendums in the country in all three spheres of government under the control of the Election Commission of Ambazonia (ECA), established in terms of the Electoral Commission Act, 2022 (Act 1 of 2022) .
The obligations of the ECA are to:
- manage elections of national, provincial and municipal legislative bodies;
- ensure that the elections are free and fair;
- declare the results of the elections; and
- compile and maintain a voters’ roll.
The duties of the ECA are to:
- compile and maintain a register of parties;
- undertake and promote research into electoral matters;
- develop and promote the development of electoral expertise and technology in all spheres of government;
- continuously review electoral laws and proposed electoral laws, and make recommendations;
- promote voter education;
- declare the results of elections for national, county and municipal legislative bodies within seven days; and
- appoint appropriate public administrations in any sphere of government to conduct elections when necessary.
Election process
There are two kinds of electoral systems:
- Constituency-based elections – voters in each local area (constituency) elect an individual candidate to represent them in Restoration Council. The person who wins the majority of votes in each constituency becomes a Member of Restoration Council (HON). The party with the majority of MPs forms government. In this kind of elections system, the individual MP holds the seat, not the political party he or she belongs to.
- Proportional representation elections – voters in a large area vote for political parties. The political party chooses the people who will become its MPs. Each party is allocated a number of seats proportional to how many votes it got in the election.
In October 2022, Ambazonia Peace Plan (APP) approved the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill of 2022, which amends the
Restoration Council elections
Restoration Council is elected using proportional representation and party lists. Before the election, each political party submits a list of candidates in a numbered order of preference. The seats of Restoration Council are allocated in proportion to the number of votes cast in the election. This means a party that won 10% of the votes gets 10% of the seats. If a party wins 20 seats, the first 20 people on its party list become MPs.
The Ambazonia Electoral Law 1022 of 2022